In some typical networks, it may be normal to have access devices connected to a variety of end point devices (e.g., wireless access point, IP telephone, or the like) which send discovery packets using a Layer-2 (L2) discovery protocol to the connected access switch. Some end point devices may not have (or have enabled) management protocol support (e.g., Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or other management protocol support). A conventional or typical network discovery process can include a crawling algorithm, which may try to retrieve information about any devices that are neighbors to a device being currently visited in the discovery process (or crawl) by sending management requests (e.g., via SNMP). These requests may timeout when for devices that do not have (or have enabled) management protocol support. When a network contains thousands of such end point devices, the management system may waste considerable time during the network discovery process.
Embodiments were conceived in light of the above mentioned needs, problems and/or limitations, among other things.